Dec. 01, 2011

Glorious Footage Of ... Pigeons?

Ivo Ros, of Harvard’s Concord Field Station, studies pigeon flight. Why pigeons? They are lab rats with wings, he says, and more importantly, they are excellent at maneuvering in the air. Ros and colleagues collected pigeons from a Cambridge parking garage and built a course for them to fly through in the lab. Using high speed cameras, the researchers studied how pigeons make sharp turns at low speeds.

footage courtesy of Ivo Ros, Harvard University

Discussion

FEATURED READING

This Idea Must Die: Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress (Edge Question Series)